Account of a Tour in Normandy, Volume 2 eBook

About four miles farther on from Caen, we reached
Cambre, one of the many seignories which belonged
to the very noble family of Mathan. There was
a Serlo de Mathan, who appears as a witness to one
of the Conqueror’s charters, and the family
is now represented by the present Marquis, who has
recovered his chateau, and a fragment of his domain.
Cambre is also the residence of the Abbe de la Rue,
by whom the Marquis was educated. When they both
took refuge in England, the Abbe was the only protector
of his pupil, who now returns the honorable obligation.
It is well known that the Abbe has devoted his life
to the investigation of the antiquities both of Normandy
and of the Anglo-Normans. Possessing in a high
degree the acute and critical spirit of research which
distinguished the French archaiologists of the Benedictine
school, we have only to regret, that the greater part
of his works yet remain in manuscript. His History
of Anglo-Norman Poetry, which is quite ready for
the press, would be an invaluable accession to our
literature; but books of this nature are so little
suited to the taste of the French public, that, as
yet, he has not ventured upon its publication.
The collections of the Abbe, as may be anticipated,
are of great value; they relate almost wholly to the
history of the duchy. The chateau escaped spoliation.
The portraits of the whole line of the Mathans, from
the first founder of the race, in his hauberk, down
to the last Marquis, in his frisure, are in
good preservation; and they are ancient specimens
of the sign-post painting usually found in old galleries.
The Marquis has also a finely-illuminated missal,
which belonged to a Dame de Mathan, in the fourteenth
century, and which has been carefully handed down
in the family, from generation to generation.

The church of Douvre, the next village, is rather
a picturesque building. The upper story of the
tower has two pointed windows of the earliest date.
A pediment between them rests on the archivolt on either
side. This is frequently seen in buildings in
the circular style. The other stories of the
tower, and the west front of the church are Norman;
the east end is in ruins. The British name of
the village may afford ground for much ethnigraphical
and etymological speculation.

Saint Exuperius is said to have founded the Chapel
of La Delivrande, some time in the first century.
The tradition adds, that the chapel was ruined by
the Northmen,—­and the statue of the Virgin,
which now commands the veneration of the faithful,
remained buried until the appointed time of resuscitation,
in the reign of Henry Ist, when it was discovered,
in conformity to established usage and precedent in
most cases of miraculous images, by a lamb. Baldwin,
Count of the Bessin and Baron of Douvre, was owner
of the flock to which the lamb belonged. The
Virgin would not remain in the parish church of Douvre,
in which she was lodged by the Baron, but she returned